March 2005

27/03/2005
There is no answer to telephone nuisance
Vol XXVIII NO. 7 Sunday 27 March 2005


BY AMIRA AL HUSSAINI

The phone rings. You answer the phone. So far so good. You see, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Telephone conversations can sometimes be very annoying and I have managed to get unstuck on the phone many times in the past.

I can't stand beating around the bush; I am generally impatient and genuinely have a lot of work to do. I simply cannot waste my time with niceties on the phone; I can't discuss the weather and I can't give anonymous callers a minute-by-minute account of what I did with my husband last summer.

If you are unlucky enough to answer the phone at the Gulf Daily News on any given day, here is a transcript of a typical conversation:

Me: "Hello. Gulf Daily News."

Caller: "Hello? GDN?"

Me: "Yes. Can I help you?"

Caller: "GDN..Gulf Daily News...same same?"

Me: "Yes."

CLICK

Your guess is as good as mine as to why this person had called the newspaper to begin with. This is a regular occurrence. We get such phone calls several times a day.

Not that I am important or anything, but I sometimes have this feeling that people wake up in the morning with an agenda - Let's make Amira's life miserable today.

Telephone conversations with people who don't know whether they are going or coming or what they exactly want are exasperating and sap all your energy, especially after a long day at work.

Here's a another conversation I just had with a caller who wanted to speak to reporter Robert Smith:

Me: "Hello. Gulf Daily News."

Caller: "This GDN?"

Me: "Yes..GDN, Gulf Daily News same same."

Caller: "Robert there?"

Me: "I am afraid he is has gone out on an appointment. Would you like to leave him a message?"

Caller: "Yes. But this is GDN?"

Me: "Yes. This is the Gulf Daily News."

Caller: "Robert there?"

Me: "No. Robert is not here. He will come back later."

Caller: "But this is GDN?"

Me: "Yes. This is GDN. Robert is not here. Can I help you?"

Caller: "But this is GDN and Robert not there?"

Me: "No. This is GDN. Robert is not here. It is very simple. Do you have a problem understanding me?"

Caller: "Why you so rude?"

Me: "Why do you keep repeating yourself so many times?"

Caller: "But this is GDN!"

It is a lost battle. Just because it is the GDN, we are supposed to know everything and put up with abuse everyday.

Phone etiquette? Another cliché which has lost its meaning in the real working world.



09:22 Posted in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

19/03/2005
And they call me a man hater!
And they call me a man-hater...when I am not and never was.

If there is a good man out there and he has done something good...I would be the first to acknowledge it and salute him for that rare act of kindness towards mankind!

Anyway.. I am finding it difficult to get my published articles and sometimes censored articles which are not always politically correct off the net.

I just found one on Mahmood's Den. Thanks Mahmood for this great act of kindness! I owe you one!

00:28 Posted in Rants | Permalink | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (28) | Email this

18/03/2005
Forget shop mannequins...what about our abayas?
Friday March 18, 2005

BY AMIRA AL HUSSAINI

Cover up the mannequins please. Those distasteful anorexic women should not be on display for public viewing. Let them wear abayas, with the red lace of nightgowns hanging out from the side. For a change, the mannequins will then be mimicking real women - instead of the other way round. I can't help but roll my eyes every time I am out in public, surrounded by women wearing the tightest, brightest, embroidered, see-through abayas.

Is it only me who feels this way? If they really want to expose what lies beneath, why do they bother wearing the abayas to begin with?

Please, don't get me wrong. I am not voicing my insecurities or anything.

I am also all for freedom of expression and dressing up is one way of expressing oneself, which I don't want to limit in a society which has more restrictions and taboos today than it did in the swinging 60s and sizzling 70s.

But to humiliate the abaya - the sign of the humble modest woman who strictly adheres to tradition and culture - in this shameful manner is blasphemous by all standards.

I really don't know why parliament has not taken up the matter, or why members from the Islamic Bloc haven't yet passed a motion banning such scandalous abayas, which are closer to nightgowns than the symbol of the humble Muslim woman.

I know I am opening myself up to criticism here, because I am not exactly the abaya-wearing Muslim woman.

But at least whatever clothes I wear cover more than some of the abayas worn by many women!

If parliament does not want to do something about loose women on the streets, perhaps the municipal councils should come up with a motion to cover up scantily-clad women wearing abayas?

They have, after all, appointed themselves as the vice squads in a Bahrain where everything is so perfect - albeit with a few people hanging their underwear to dry outside their homes.

23:00 Posted in Municipal Council Trash , Women's Affairs | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

Why
Why is a very legitimate question.

I am a journalist who has been fiddling with the idea of writing columns for our local newspaper for a few months. I want to bring all my published columns under one roof - in CyberLand!

So...let's see what happens!

In short, this is my archive...

12:20 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

15/03/2005
Councillors wasting time with trivial concerns
Vol XXVII NO. 360 Tuesday 15 March 2005

BY AMIRA AL HUSSAINI

The Municipal councils are continuing to amuse us with their trivial pursuits.

Many people, including my humble self, have no idea anymore what their real job is because they have distracted us with their hilarious concerns.

The fact that they are spending time discussing whether mannequins have to be covered up or not or where people should hang their washed underwear to dry sends shock waves down my spine.

After Muharraq, the Central Municipal Council has now succeeded in passing an order to cover up all the mannequins in their area.

A great achievement indeed in areas with roads full of potholes, overflowing sewage and dilapidated homes, swarming with insects and rodents!

From banning the display of nightwear and swimwear on mannequins in shop display windows, the Northern Municipal Council comes up with another ingenious idea: Let's stop people hanging their underwear to dry outside their homes.

I am sure other councils will follow suit and before long, people will have to resort to wearing disposable underwear or maybe no underwear at all rather than break the law and face penalties - perhaps jail or a fine - for not affording dryers or mansions to hang their underwear in places far away from prying eyes.

I wish I had time on my hands to review to the 50 elected councillors' election programmes and see what they have achieved over almost three years.


Have they lived up to people's expectations?

Wasn't there a municipal councillor in Muharraq who promised his constituency to close down Bahrain International Airport because of the noise and inconvenience it brought to people in his area?

What about the Isa Town municipal councillor who promised to close down Al Manar for Parents Care - a daytime centre looking after the elderly - and turn it into a health centre?

The message coming from the leadership is loud and clear: The aim of reforms - political, economic and labour - is to improve the quality of life of all Bahrainis.

It is a shame to see what little is being achieved because the reforms are being hijacked by concerns which are not the need of the hour in my country.

23:05 Posted in Municipal Council Trash | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

13/03/2005
Let's drive lunatics off our roads...
Vol XXVII NO. 358 Sunday 13 March 2005

By AMIRA AL HUSSAINI

The alarm goes off. You are fully awake and are ready for the beginning of a long week at work.

You get into your car. Something makes you pause: "Is it really worth it?" you ask yourself.

I am not speaking here about the futility of going to work and repeating the same chores everyday; I am not talking about the monotony of life where every day repeats the day before it and I am not even going anywhere near the stalemate we feel in some quarters as far as real development of any value is concerned.

Leaving your house in the morning, every morning, is inevitable - if you muster the energy to get out of bed, that is!

Do you know what it is that drives me crazy every time I am in my car going somewhere?

It is the way other people drive. Their selfishness and their arrogance gets under my skin. Their total lack of manners and respect for other road users, be it pedestrians, drivers, cyclists or even cats, makes my blood boil.

Look at the way they zigzag through traffic at full speed, totally oblivious to the lives of other road users; how those little silly boys in flashy cars flash their headlights at you, even on highways where you are driving at the maximum speed limit; how some creepy crawlies drive at a snail's pace even on open roads - blocking two or sometimes three lanes of the highway; and the way people talk on the phone, while meandering from one lane to the other, without using signals. Signals? What signals?

The fact that some drivers think they own the road and are not responsible for their actions is a slap in the face for humanity and decency. It doesn't matter what make of car you drive; what makes a difference is how you drive it.

What adds insult to injury is when some policemen abuse their powers and use different yardsticks to punish different people.

How many times have I seen policemen turning a blind eye to people breaking traffic rules, just because they and those supposedly responsible for upholding the law, think that they are a cut above the rest!

Traffic Week started yesterday under the theme "Your driving reflects your manners" - a perfect motto for a world full of lunatic drivers.

People with no manners should lock themselves up at home until they acquire some.

Driving in a reckless manner is a serious offence as people's lives - even poor ones and labourers - are not that cheap.

23:10 Posted in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

08/03/2005
Families losing out big time in battle of the sexes!
Vol XXVII NO. 353 Tuesday 8 March 2005

By Amira Al Hussaini

Have you ever heard of the International Men's Day? It is so obvious. It smacks you in the face and smirks at you every day.

It is celebrated 364 days a year (365 days every Leap Year) to glorify those selfish creatures who think that the whole world rotates around their little finger.

All they have to do is lift it and everything comes to a standstill, in anticipation of their petty desires - whether it is a war, spreading famine and disease, ultra-smart ideas like annihilating mankind by nuclear, chemical or biological warfare... all the way down to playing dirty politics.

On the family front, they break up families, cheat on their wives and abuse their children.

On the personal front, they break hearts and spirits.

The world is after all their playground to do with as they please, with women created to serve and please them.

But the overall picture is not that bleak.

In appreciation of women, who have shouldered the burden of seeing them in good health and in sickness, they have spared us one day in their busy calendar of events - March 8 - to commemorate the International Women's Day.

The rest of the year is all theirs to exploit women and act the masters of the realm they think they are.

In a country as small as Bahrain, where women constitute about 42 per cent of the population, it is a shame to note that appointments, laws and practices are not in favour of women.

Only two Cabinet ministers are women: Health Minister Dr Nada Haffadh and more recently Social Affairs Minister Dr Fatima Al Balooshi.

Add to this Supreme Council for Women secretary-general Lulwa Al Awadhi, whose post carries a ministerial rank.

Great strides really in a country which is yet to have an apparatus in place to protect women from family members, society, the law, lawmakers and keepers and from the very Ministry of Justice, whose only purpose is to ensure justice is implemented - if only on paper in an increasingly unjust world.

Believe me, women don't want equality. Not yet, at least. All we want is our basic rights - whether we are single, married, divorced, widowed or all of the above.

It isn't a lot - all we want is to live in dignity and with self-respect at a time when statistics released by the Interior Ministry show that an average of two women report physical abuse and one verbal abuse to police stations every single day.

Ensuring this isn't any easy feat, not in a democracy which is yet to approve a family law.

Contrary to popular belief, a family law will not only protect women - who by instinct have been created to protect their homes - but the family as a whole, including men.

23:15 Posted in Women's Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this